In the ’40s, beauty products like Waling-Waling, Madame X and Gloria were very popular with the masses. Actually, they — perfume, pomade and face powder — were imported from China and repacked here…and given local names.
A locally-manufactured beauty brand was Three Sisters, by Hermoso Laboratories, owned by Premiere producers Dr. Ciriaco Santiago and wife Doña Adela Hermoso, a pharmacist.
Waling-Waling face powder was ‘mala bulaklak na kagandahan sa inyong balat,’ while Madame X and Gloria promised ‘love’ and ‘mystic enchantment,’ which men and women alike patronized.
High-end American brands were also popular…with the well-to-do. The likes of Gloco, Camay, Max Factor, Coty, Helena Rubenstein, Richard Hudnut, Blanchard.
There were also Spanish products like Maja, Heno de Pravia, Agua Florida, Bella Aurora.
French, Italian and Japanese beauty products came to the country much later, in the late ’50s and early ’60s. —RKC